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The Burma campaign was the longest British Empire land campaign of the Second World War, lasting from the disastrous defence of 1942 to the reconquest of 1945. However it was also a multi-national affair, involving China and the United States, while the eventual British success was largely due to the contributions of Indian and Africa troops. It was a war that saw the longest retreat in British military history in 1942, and the largest defeats suffered by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1944-45. At the same time it also saw the Indian Army transformed from a subordinate colonial force into the basis of the independent Indian and Pakistani armies.
The book is split into four parts, each covering one year of the conflict. However each of these years also saw the war move in very different directions. In Part One we see the collapse of the British position in Burma, with an experienced Japanese force attacking a complacent, inexperienced and numerically inadequate British Empire force. In Part Two the Burmese front was something of a sideline for both sides, with the Japanese happy to stay on the defensive and the British offensives of the year ending in failure. A common feature of these years is a failure to understand their enemy and the type of fight they faced by many senior British officers, with Wavell emerging especially badly.
By Part Three (1944) the British have found the leaders who would win the war – Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, and General Slim in charge of the Fourteenth Army. We see how the Indian army had massively expanded, and also gained in professionalism and equipment, to become the largest component in Fourteenth Army (along with a large number of African troops). However it would be the Japanese who went onto the attack, launching their ‘March on Delhi’, which became famous for the Allied victories at Imphal and Kohima.
In Part Four we see Slim and his men reap the benefits of the massive improvement in their fighting abilities, and the crushing defeat of the Japanese attacks of 1944, to successfully reconquer Burma before the start of the 1945 Monsoon.
Through the book we see events from a wide range of viewpoints – Burma had been the main supply route for US aid to China, and Chinese and American troops both fought in the country in sizable numbers. The author examines the motivation of the millions of Indians who volunteered to join the Indian Army, making a convincing case for it being a deliberate decision to defend India against Japanese aggression, rather than any support for the British in India or as mercenaries. One of the great ironies of this story is that one of the British Raj’s greatest achievements came only two years before it disappeared from history. The author’s argument is that many in India believed that independence was coming, and chose to fight to defend that future independence. On the Japanese side we get plenty on their leaders- their plans, their arguments, their early achievements and their later failures. Characters such as Wingate or Stilwell make their appearances, but it is Slim who dominates, having been involved from the days of retreat to the eventual victory.
This is an excellent study of this long campaign, and gives us a good idea of just why the British position in Burma collapsed so totally in 1942, and how they were able to recover and then defeat the Japanese in Burma despite always being pretty low down on the Allied list of priorities. Despite knowing that Burma would only move up the list after the defeat of Germany, Rangoon was actually liberated on 1 May 1945, a week before VE day.
Part One – Hubris, 1942
Prologue – Major John Hedley, 4 Burma Rifles
1 – Burma at the Intersection of History
2 – Defending Burma (Badly)
3 – A Hurried and Ill-Considered Plan
4 – The First Shots
5 – ‘We Could at Any Rate Send a Man’
6 – A Slim Chance to Save Burma
7 – The Battle for Lower Burma
8 – Exodus
9 – Independence Armies
10 – The Reason Why
Part Two – Hiatus, 1943
Prologue – Lieutenant Philip Brownless, 1 Essex Regiment
11 – Aftermath
12 – Taking Stock
13 – Arakan Round One
14 – Bharat Choro!
15 – Vineger Joe’s Travails
16 – Trying to Crack the Donbaik Nut
17 – Irwin’s Blame Game
18 – ‘Our New God, Orde Wingate’
19 – Re-thinking Training
20 – Building a Base
21 – ‘A Blind Man Searching for a Black Cat in a Dark Room’
Part Three – Resurrection, 1944
Prologue – Lieutenant John Twells, 1 Gurkha Rifles
22 – Arakan, Again
23 – Ha-Go
24 – Odeydoke
25 – Sinzweya
26 – The March on Delhi
27 – Cock-up on the Tiddim Road
28 – The Chindwin
29 – Thermpylae in the Naga Hills
30 – The Spokes of the Wheel
31 – Forty-Seven Days of Battle: Kohima
32 – Seventy-Six Days of Siege: Imphal
32 – Down the Hukawang Valley to Myitkyina
33 – The Road of Bones
Part Four – Redemption, 1945
Prologue – Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Pettigrew, 2/14 Punkab
35 – What to Do About Burma?
36 – A Change of Plan
37 – Third Time Lucky in Arakan
38 – Meiktila and Mandalay
39 – Extract Digit!
40 – The Empire Strikes Back
Author: Robert Lyman
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 560
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2021